Azeite n¼7 bilingue IDG - Casa do Azeite

sou apreciador da tradicional comida pesada portuguesa.
Como um cozido, mas tripas e feijoadas não.
You’re joking! Now we really have a cover story!
Wait a second, you’d better not print that. It’d be bad publicity for
Portugal and the magazine. Bacalhau needs olive oil, as they say.
But I do like bacalhau à brás, no, à brás no. I mean a murro.
With potatoes a murro, charcoal style. But I’m not a great fan of
traditional, heavy Portuguese food. I eat cozido, the boiled meat
and vegetable dish, but tripe and bean stews, no.
E em Madrid, numa casa espanhola partilhada com uma
mulher sueca, existe lugar para a tradição lusa?
É difícil, até porque a Helene tem hábitos bastante diferentes.
Mas quando a minha mãe está em Espanha, até porque ela
tem muita experiência e é excelente na cozinha, comemos
alguns pratos típicos portugueses.
And in Madrid, in a Spanish home shared with a Swedish
wife, is there any room for Portuguese tradition?
It’s difficult, because Helene has quite different eating habits.
When my mother is in Spain, however, we do have some typical
Portuguese dishes: she’s got a lot of experience and is excellent in
the kitchen.
Bem acompanhados por azeite?
Gosto muito de azeite. Não é necessário gostar de bacalhau
ou procurar uma refeição específica para o usar. Hoje em dia,
está presente em qualquer ocasião. Até para molhar o pão no
lugar de manteiga.
With olive oil?
I like olive oil a lot. You don’t have to like bacalhau or look for a
specific dish in order to use it. Nowadays, it’s used on any occasion.
You can even use it on bread instead of butter.
É um ingrediente a que recorres quando cozinhas?
Bem, eu não cozinho muitas vezes, confesso, mas a Helene
substitui sempre o óleo pelo azeite. É muito melhor, mais agradável.
É algo que está relacionado com a nossa própria cultura.
O meu pai não consegue comer sem utilizar um bom azeite.
Is it an ingredient you use when cooking?
Well, I don’t do a lot of cooking, I must admit, but Helene always uses
olive oil. It’s much better, much pleasanter than other oils. It’s tied up
with our culture. My father couldn’t eat without good olive oil.
Entrevista
Interview
“WHEN I STOP PLAYING FOOTBALL IS THE TIME I’LL START
WORRYING ABOUT MY DIET. AT THE MOMENT, I EAT WHAT
I WANT. I DON’T HAVE TIME TO PUT ON WEIGHT. WHEN
YOU’RE PLAYING TOP CLASS SPORT, IT’S IMPOSSIBLE”
>> eat better in a cheap place just around the
corner”. Being a top class sportsman doesn’t
mean curbing the pleasure of eating well.
“When I stop playing football is the time
I’ll start worrying about my diet. At the
moment, I don’t give it a thought. I eat what
I want. If I get a bit fat, I’ll work it off. But
I really don’t have time to put on weight. When
you’re playing top class sport, it’s impossible.”
Luís Figo was a rather fussy child, who only
wanted steak, fish and tomato rice. His
mother made sandwiches which he refused to
eat: he hid them in the electricity metre box.
But at the table, ‘tastes change”. Sometimes,
even, relationships are born between spoonfuls.
It was during a lunch, at the Atlantic
de Tibidabo in Barcelona, that he saw his
wife Helene, for the first time. He has her
in mind when he recommends the Vila Jóia
restaurant for a romantic dinner, “with a
sea view and candles and atmosphere”.
Training is in half an hour, so Figo gets up
and signs another shirt. His smile seems
perpetual. He walks off, slightly dragging his
right leg.
Guardiola, his former Barcelona team
mate, wrote in the introduction to Toni
Frieros’ book Figo, Nascido para Vencer
(Figo, Born to Win) that “you are always
complaining, ‘I’m tired’, ‘I won’t make it to
the final’, ‘I can’t get through this match’.
But when the referee’s whistle blows, you’re
always there.” Maybe this is because Figo
has managed to take the game back to
basics: a ball and eleven players on each
side. Pure and simple, like olive oil. ■
Az-zait 19